The isekai boom has been this decade’s defining trend in the anime and manga industry, with several new isekai series hitting screens and shelves each season. During this time, several new isekai subgenres have formed, the most notable of which is the villainess isekai subgenre, which has spawned several massively popular series, including My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! and Doctor Elise: The Royal Lady With The Lamp. And TTRPG players don’t need to feel left out, as Reincarnated as the Unlovable Villainess?! captures the spirit of the villainess isekai genre in an excellent solo game.
As the title suggests, Reincarnated as the Unlovable Villainess?! casts the player as a poor soul who has died, only to end up transported into a video game they used to play. However, they soon realize they have been placed in the body of the game’s villainess, a character who always ends the game dead or imprisoned. So, desperate to avoid this fate, the player throws themselves into the story and tries to find a way to forge a new path, one where they can live a long and happy life.
Transported To An Isekai World Where I Have To Learn Game Mechanics?!
The game starts with character creation, with the player naming their villainess, choosing her class, and her relation to the game’s heroine. After this, the player will assign stats to their villainess. The game has two stats representing both core elements of the villainess isekai genre, Lore (your knowledge of the game and its systems) and Love (your charisma and social skills).
After this, the player will do some worldbuilding, generating both the game’s love interests and the Bad Ends that await their villainess if she fails to change the story.
The core gameplay of Reincarnated as the Unlovable Villainess?! is split into days. At the start of each new day, the player rolls their dice to learn what scenario will unfold. The player then rolls another dice and compares it to the relevant stat to see if the scenario has a positive or negative outcome for them.
Positive outcomes reduce your Bad End value and increase your relationship with a love interest of the player’s choice, while a negative one does the opposite. A critical failure also triggers a Plot Twist event, which massively changes the story, often by adding or removing Love Interests.
Constant Reminders That You’re In Another World
The game ends in one of two ways. If your Bad End counter is too high on a Bad End day, your villainess has to endure a Bad End, and the game ends. However, if your villainess can survive for 30 days, you win the game and get to write an epilogue detailing how her new life plays out.
Reincarnated as the Unlovable Villainess?! does a fantastic job of capturing all of the villainess isekai genre’s hallmarks in a simple-to-follow package. The game’s prompts and mechanics walk the fine line between having enough guidance to give the game a specific atmosphere while being open enough to allow the player to be creative. This is impressive as many isekai games, no matter their medium, struggle to capture the genre’s unique feel and most quickly become generic fantasy games after the initial introduction.
The Bad End timer and the lore stat are a big reason for the game’s success. Having knowledge of the world and its underlying systems be a core stat means that the player is constantly reminded that they’re in an isekai narrative, which leads to them using the genre’s hallmarks more frequently in journal entries. On top of this, the Bad End countdown forces the player to act and write like a villainess isekai protagonist, using their knowledge of mechanics to manipulate events in their favor, even if the individual actions seem strange or if they force the protagonist to seduce someone they’re not otherwise interested in, leading to some gripping gambits and plot moments that feel like they could have been ripped out of any recent smash-hit villainess isekai.
Reincarnated as the Unlovable Villainess?! is a fun game perfect for isekai fans and TTRPG players looking for a quick solo game that can be completed in 30 – 40 minutes.
Even better, you won’t need to go to another world to get your hands on it!
Jonathon Greenall is a freelance writer, TTRPG designer, and visual artist. They love creating and exploring the often overlooked corners of indie media, spotlighting things that dare to be different.